Verse 12
Because ye believed me not - What was the offense for which Moses was excluded from the promised land? It appears to have consisted in some or all of the following particulars:
1. God had commanded him ([Num 20:8]) to take the rod in his hand, and go and Speak To The Rock, and it should give forth water. It seems Moses did not think speaking would be sufficient, therefore he smote the rock without any command so to do.
2. He did this twice, which certainly in this case indicated a great perturbation of spirit, and want of attention to the presence of God.
3. He permitted his spirit to be carried away by a sense of the people's disobedience, and thus, being provoked, he was led to speak unadvisedly with his lips: Hear now, ye Rebels, [Num 20:10].
4. He did not acknowledge God in the miracle which was about to be wrought, but took the honor to himself and Aaron: "Must We fetch you water out of this rock?"
Thus it plainly appears that they did not properly believe in God, and did not honor him in the sight of the people; for in their presence they seem to express a doubt whether the thing could be possibly done. As Aaron appears to have been consenting in the above particulars, therefore he is also excluded from the promised land.
Verse 14
Sent messengers - unto the king of Edom - Archbishop Usher supposes that the king now reigning in Edom was Hadar, mentioned [Gen 36:39].
Thus saith thy brother Israel - The Edomites were the descendants of Edom or Esau, the brother of Jacob or Israel, from whom the Israelites were descended.
Verse 17
We will go by the king's high-way - This is the first time this phrase occurs; it appears to have been a public road made by the king's authority at the expense of the state.
Verse 21
Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border - Though every king has a right to refuse passage through his territories to any strangers; yet in a case like this, and in a time also in which emigrations were frequent and universally allowed, it was both cruelty and oppression in Edom to refuse a passage to a comparatively unarmed and inoffensive multitude, who were all their own near kinsmen. It appears however that it was only the Edomites of Kadesh that were thus unfriendly and cruel; for from [Deu 2:29] we learn that the Edomites who dwelt in Mount Seir treated them in a hospitable manner. This cruelty in the Edomites of Kadesh is strongly reprehended, and threatened by the Prophet Obadiah, [Oba 1:10], etc.
Verse 26
Strip Aaron of his garments - This was, in effect, depriving him of his office; and putting the clothes on his son Eleazar implied a transfer of that office to him. A transfer of office, from this circumstance of putting the clothes of the late possessor on the person intended to succeed him, was called investing or investment, (clothing); as removing a person from an office was termed divesting or unclothing. Among the Catholics, and in the Church of England, this same method is used in degrading ecclesiastics. Hence such a degradation is termed by the common people stripping a man of his gown.
Verse 28
And Aaron died there - Hence, as Dr. Lightfoot has justly observed, we have an "indisputable proof that the earthly Canaan was not the utmost felicity at which God's promises to the Israelites aimed since the best men among them were excluded from it."
The remark of some of the fathers here is worthy of attention: "Neither Moses the representative of the law, nor Miriam the representative of the prophets, nor Aaron the representative of the priesthood and its sacrificial rites, could bring the Israelites into possession of the promised land. This was reserved for Joshua, who was in name and conduct the lively type of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." He alone can bring those who believe in his name into that rest which remains for the people of God.
There are some observations made by Dr. Lightfoot on this and some of the preceding chapters which should be more generally known. "The place where the people murmured upon the return of the spies was Kadesh-Barnea, [Num 13:26]; [Num 32:8]; [Deu 1:19]. This place was called Rithmah before, ([Num 33:18], compared with [Num 12:16], and [Num 13:26]), and was so called probably from the juniper trees that grew there; but is now named Kadesh, because the Lord was there sanctified upon the people, as [Num 20:13]; and Barnea, or the wandering son, because here was the decree made of their long wandering in the wilderness. They continued a good space at Kadesh before they removed; for so said Moses, Ye abode in Kadesh many days; or as the Hebrew, According to the days that ye had made abode, namely, at Sinai, [Num 20:6]. And so they spent one whole year there, for so they had done at Sinai. And whereas God commands them at their murmuring to turn back to the Red Sea, ([Deu 1:40]), his meaning was, that at their next march, whensoever it was, they should not go forward unto Canaan, but back again towards the Red Sea, whence they came; (but see on [Deu 1:1] (note)). And they did so, for they wandered by many stations and marches from Kadesh-Barnea till they came to Kadesh-Barnea again, seven or eight and thirty years after they had first left it. These marches, mentioned in Numbers 33, were these: From Kadesh or Rithmah to Rimmon Parez, to Libnah, to Rissah, to Kehelathah, to Mount Shapher, to Haradah, to Makheloth, to Tahath, to Tarah, to Mithcah, to Hashmonah, to Moseroth, to Benejaaken, to Horhagidgad, to Jotbathah, to Ebronah, to Ezion-Gaber, to Kadesh again, in the fortieth year. And though it was only eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea, ([Deu 1:2]), they made it above thrice eleven years' journey!" Had they trusted in God, and obeyed him, their enemies long ere this would have been discomfited, and themselves quietly established in possession of the promised inheritance. But they grieved the Spirit of God, and did not believe his promise; and it would have been inconsistent with the whole economy of grace to have introduced unbelievers into that rest which was a type of the kingdom of God.
Introduction
Arad, a king of the Canaanites, attacks Israel, and makes same prisoners, [Num 21:1]. They devote him and his people to destruction, [Num 21:2]; which they afterwards accomplished, [Num 21:3]. They journey from Hor, and are greatly discouraged, [Num 21:4]. They murmur against God and Moses, and loathe the manna, [Num 21:5]. The Lord sends fiery serpents among them, [Num 21:6]. They repent, and beg Moses to intercede for them, [Num 21:7]. The Lord directs him to make a brazen serpent, and set it on a pole, that the people might look on it and be healed, [Num 21:8]. Moses does so, and the people who beheld the brazen serpent lived, [Num 21:9]. They journey to Oboth, Ije-abarim, Zared, and Arnon, [Num 21:10-13]. A quotation from the book of the wars of the Lord, [Num 21:14], [Num 21:15]. From Arnon they came to Beer, [Num 21:16]. Their song of triumph, [Num 21:17-20]. Moses sends messengers to the Amorites for permission to pass through their land, [Num 21:21], [Num 21:22]. Sihon their king refuses, attacks Israel, is defeated, and all his cities destroyed, [Num 21:23-26]. The poetic proverbs made on the occasion, [Num 21:27-30]. Israel possesses the land of the Amorites, [Num 21:31], [Num 21:32]. They are attacked by Og king of Bashan, [Num 21:33]. They defeat him, destroy his troops and family, and possess his land, [Num 21:34], [Num 21:35].
Verse 1
The way of the spies - אתרים atharim. Some think that this signifies the way that the spies took when they went to search the land. But this is impossible, as Dr. Kennicott justly remarks, because Israel had now marched from Meribah-Kadesh to Mount Hor, beyond Ezion-Gaber, and were turning round Edom to the south-east; and therefore the word is to be understood here as the name of a place.
Verse 3
The Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel - The whole of this verse appears to me to have been added after the days of Joshua. It is certain the Canaanites were not utterly destroyed at the time here spoken of, for this did not take place till after the death of Moses. If, instead of utterly destroyed them, ויחרם vaiyacharem, we translate they devoted them to utter destruction, it will make a good sense, and not repugnant to the Hebrew; though some think it more probable that the verse was added afterwards by Joshua or Ezra, in testimony of the fulfillment of God's promise; for Arad, who is mentioned as being destroyed here, is mentioned among those destroyed by Joshua long after, (see [Jos 12:14]): but this is quite consistent with their being devoted to destruction, as this might be fulfilled any time after. See the note on Leviticus 27 (note).
Verse 5
This light bread - הקלקל hakkelokel, a word of excessive scorn; as if they had said, This innutritive, unsubstantial, cheat - stomach stuff.
Verse 6
Fiery serpents - הנחשים השרפים hannechashim hasseraphim. I have observed before, on Gen. iii., that it is difficult to assign a name to the creature termed in Hebrew nachash; it has different significations, but its meaning here and in Gen. iii. is most difficult to be ascertained. Seraphim is one of the orders of angelic beings, [Isa 6:2], [Isa 6:6]; but as it comes from the root שרף saraph, which signifies to burn, it has been translated fiery in the text. It is likely that St. Paul alludes to the seraphim, [Heb 1:7] : Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a Flame Of Fire. The animals mentioned here by Moses may have been called fiery because of the heat, violent inflammation, and thirst, occasioned by their bite; and consequently, if serpents, they were of the prester or dipsas species, whose bite, especially that of the former, occasioned a violent inflammation through the whole body, and a fiery appearance of the countenance. The poet Lucan has well expressed this terrible effect of the bite of the prester, and also of the dipsas, in the ninth book of his Pharsalia, which, for the sake of those who may not have the work at hand, I shall here insert.
Of the mortal effects of the bite of the dipsas in the deserts of Libya he gives the following description: - "Signiferum juvenem Tyrrheni sanguinis Aulum
Torta caput retro dipsas calcata momordit.
Vix dolor aut sensus dentis fuit: ipsaque laeti
Frons caret invidia: nec quidquam plaga minatur.
Ecce subit virus tacitum, carpitque medullas
Ignis edax, calidaque incendit viscera tabe.
Ebibit humorem circum vitalia fusum
Pestis, et in sicco linguam torrere palato
Coepit: defessos iret qui sudor in artus
Non fuit, atque oculos lacrymarum vena refugit."
Aulus, a noble youth of Tyrrhene blood,
Who bore the standard, on a dipsas trod;
Backward the wrathful serpent bent her head,
And, fell with rage, the unheeded wrong repaid.
Scarce did some little mark of hurt remain,
And scarce he found some little sense of pain.